


Sleeping Lions

by Keyblader41996



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-13 23:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10524081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keyblader41996/pseuds/Keyblader41996
Summary: Drabbles on the sleeping habits of each of the Paladins.





	1. Hunk

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hoping to bust a writer's block, and I love thinking about this for characters.

When he sleeps in a bed, Hunk sprawls out as far as he possibly can. His feet and toes always have to be covered - he can’t fall asleep otherwise. But his legs are spread out to the bed posts and his arms jut out of the blanket from every angle.

Any time they camp outside the castle, the team argues over who sleeps next to Hunk. He burns _hot_ , a potable furnace of natural body heat, perfect for cold-climate planets and for hugs when anyone’s feeling sad. Hunk jokes and says it’s because his heart is so big and warm. And from all his layers of ‘insulation’.

The only downside the team seems to silently agree on: he snores like a bear.

* * *

Leave a comment if you have time! Even add your own sleeping headcanons if you want! :)

 


	2. Pidge

Pidge can't fall asleep unless her glasses, her comm device, and her picture of Matt are within reach.

It wasn't that she needed the glasses. They were an old pair of Matt's and were just a part of her disguise, after all. But those glasses and that picture were the only things she had left of him, and she didn't want to lose them. Couldn't bear to lose them. If she could've, she would've tucked the picture right inside of her arms while she curled up in the warm, cozy little ball she likes to sleep in, but she'd never risk bending it.

Instead, she keeps it up above her pillow. And sometimes she wakes up with her arm extended, like she's reaching for Matt in her sleep.

And sometimes she wakes up with a pillow or a bunched up bit of blanket snuggled tight between her arms, imagining it's him in her sleep and trying to cling to him.

Clinging desperately to all she's lost, encircling it, hoping to protect it with her own body and reclaim it by the time this is all over.


	3. Shiro

Terrible nightmares plague Shiro, night after night almost without fail. He’s been told he mutters fitfully - things ranging from gasps of shock to strangled cries of exertion to orders for Voltron. He clenches and unclenches his right arm, he tosses and turns, he fights his blankets like they’re the straps of a Galra operating table.

Sometimes he remembers his dreams. Most of the time he doesn’t. Either way, he likes leaving the lights (and, when camping off-ship, the plasma burners) on low so that if he wakes up, scared and shivering in a cold sweat, he can immediately take stock of where he is and if he’s with people he trusts. It makes calming himself down a much shorter process. If Keith is still awake, which he usually is, he’ll sit with Shiro, talk him down, offer phrases of affirmation until the tears stop and the panic abates.

That was assuming he even _slept_ for a night.

For Shiro, falling asleep is a feat of painstaking routine and tremendous patience. Enter his room. Sweep the perimeter for any trackers or bugs. Mark the exit, the distance to all the other Paladins’ rooms, and how quickly he could sprint to each of them and alert them individually if the master alarm was not tripped. Note the manual alarm each of them had in their rooms like the lever alarms on Earth. Do another sweep of the room for bugs, just to be sure. Check his wardrobe for his armor and make sure it's there, ready if he needs it.

Even when he finally settles down, Shiro can't fall asleep anymore unless he is facing the door.

Facing the door, as close to the edge of the bed as he can comfortably lie, so that he can get up at a moment's notice.

And he always keeps his right hand above the covers. Always. Waiting. Prepared. Ready.

Shiro was always a relatively light sleeper, but ever since he escaped it was miserable. Every single sound startles him. Every creak of the castle or odd hum of technology. His eyes shoot open, his heart instantly starts racing, and his fists are up, ready to combat anyone coming to take him out to the arena again. Constantly battling the uneasy feeling that tickles his neck and prickles between his shoulder blades that doesn't fade unless facing the door.

More often than not, he tires himself out mentally. Just enough to curl up on whatever side he is lying on to see the door and snooze for however long until the next sound wakes him up. But no matter how much sleep he gets, he is always the first one up in the morning, ready to take on the day with his team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is definitely the longest. Shiro is such a complex character due to the many facets of his PTSD. Underneath the commanding confidence and wisdom of experience there is a broken man just trying to move on. His condition enhances his character SO WELL, and I believe that not exploring it as much as possible in this circumstance would be a disservice to him. Why does Shiro do what he does, etc.
> 
> Leave a review if you have time.
> 
> ~Keyblader


	4. Keith

It takes Keith a long, long time to calm down after battles if he's not already exhausted.

Even hours after the Lions have been stored in their hangars and the lights in the castle have been turned off, the adrenaline still courses through Keith's veins. His senses calm but never _quite_  dull - the calm picture of his dark room looks _too_ crisp to be real, and it makes him itch. Makes him twitch, with raw energy crawling under his skin like bugs. Blood pounds in his ears, and so do the echoes of the shooting and the ringing of his bayard and the cries of dying Galra soldiers and bots. His hands shake, his breathing feels short and never quite returns to normal.

He has to burn off all the extra energy before he can even think about resting. He has to fight until he's so exhausted, he has nowhere to go but to sleep. Until the shaking moves from his hands to his knees and there's black creeping at the edges of his vision instead of the dust particles in the air. Sometimes he spends hours fighting the training bots, and sometimes it's only minutes before he can close his eyes.

But when he does, everything fades away. And he's calm and he's rested and he's relaxed until the next battle.


	5. Lance

Lance has three night time playlists. The first two: _Sounds of Space_ , and _Sounds of Earth_.

 _Sounds of Space_ is just the natural electromagnetic emissions of the planets in the Milky Way, and a bunch of new planets they visited that Hunk recorded. It isn't . . . _music_ , per se. Some are mixed to soft EDM beats or are superimposed over atmospheric noises to make them sound more cinematic, but . . . in their natural beauty they are white noises and ambient musics without melodies. Just floating sounds that allow him to picture himself weightless in space, soaring past the solar system. He can dream of stopping at Earth and appreciating the view of his home. Swirling clouds, swirling oceans, green and brown and blue and white colors. If he is far enough away in his dreams, Earth looks small enough that he could cup it in his hands.

 _Sounds of Earth_ is carefully organized by terrain. _Rainforests_. _Woodlands_. _Bayous_. _Mountains_. _Deserts_. _Bustling Cities_. _Night and Day_. _Winter_ , _Spring_ , _Summer_ , and _Fall_ each have their own playlist as well. He has animals, he has nature, he has weather, too.

 _The Rain_ is one of his favorite weather playlists, for obvious reasons. It includes everything - sounds of sprinkling, sounds of hailing, sounds of storming complete with thunder and torrential rain. Rain that comes down in sheets and rain that comes down in bursts and rain with winds that blow it in from the sides. Set against various backgrounds and settings of his other playlists.

And then he has his third playlist. _Veradero Beach_. The constant rolling of the waves and the smaller, trickling splashes of the shallows make a continuous cadence behind the other sounds. Tropical birds call all around him, filling both sides of his head phones, and even traveling from back to front, growing louder and softer to make him feel like he's completely surrounded. Gentle island breezes rustle palm leaves that he imagines stretch overhead. Guitar music with beautiful melodies and chords that roll and swirl together and gently wrap him in its transcendence. Passion and longing incarnate.

He loves his _Veradero_ playlist the most. It is for nights like this. Nights like this when he can't sleep because his heart is too heavy and sick. When he misses the sands of the beach and he misses the clear blue water between his toes. When he misses his _abuela_ 's cooking and his mother's hugs and the patter of his brothers and sisters' feet on the floor. The constant babble of people and his father playing guitar and . . .

Sounds of _home_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand . . . finished! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed and favorited and followed, especially The Best Guesst for their headcanons on ff.net! This went in a completely different direction than I was expecting it to but I still really really like what I wrote. Lance's music is definitely important to him and I imagine it's important to his sleep, too!
> 
> Happy Easter, if that's your thing! Happy Passover if that's your thing! Happy everything no matter your thing!
> 
> ~Keyblader


End file.
